Also, Klout, if you're listening, I'm flogging you here too.
I am going to give a quick summary of my thoughts on a few King titles I've read in the past, to exemplify my complete fascination with all things King.
Top 10 Stories:
Yes stories, I'm including any category I want. It's MY blag, and I'll do what I want!
10. The Eyes of the Dragon:
A classic knights of the realm tale, full of swords, sorcery, and EPIC awesomeness (Note: use of epic is approved by virtue of the nature of this tale, go read it, it's EPIC.)!
9. (Rita Hayworth &) The Shawshank Redemption:
A tale of hope, and redemption set against the cruelty of prison society. This story has made one of the best film adaptations I have ever witnessed on the silver screen, period.
8. The Shining:
A family moves into a remote luxury resort to be temporary resident caretakers, but isolation and boredom (& other things!!) Change what ought to have been a relatively interesting experience into a living ice-bound hell.
7. `Salem's Lot:
Masterful transplant of classic vampire fiction into a rural North American setting and some of the finest gripping moments produced outside Anne Rice's own pages.
6. Under The Dome:
One of the newer on this list, a very compelling "what-if" scenario, filled with a town's worth of well fleshed characters, and dirty secrets.
5. Duma Key:
An interesting narrative of one man's recovery and rehabilitation, a muse and contemplation of the inspiration of art and artists.
4. IT:
For the record, I must admit a particular fondness for this novel, many writers are incapable of remembering the narrative voice of a child, and more difficult, is retelling that narrative for an adult audience. One of the finest fiction works ever produced.
3. The Stand:
The scale and magnitude of both characters, and events in this novel are unbelievable. I once owned a hardcover uncut edition of this book, and its loss still bothers me to this day. King writes with an urgency and feverish rapture that carries this story on a rapids filled journey to an ultimate conclusion.
2. Needful Things:
In a small town, a new store opens. Caveat Emptor. A brutal description of what lurks in the mind of every human and a lesson in getting what you wish for may cost well beyond any measure of it's worth.
1. One is not one, exactly. The Dark Tower
A series, unquestionably the best fiction reads of my life. Another justified use of the word EPIC. The tale of Roland and both his original and new Ka-Tet, and the majesty and wonder of the courts of Gilead to a weaving of several universe threads from other King works into this magnum opus, makes this the clear and decisive winner in what I sat down thinking would be an easy task.
So folks, there it is, a short, most definitely not sweet top ten list of my personal faves, penned by the masterful Stephen King. I live not far from his hometown in Maine, and occasionally cross over into America-land on book shopping expeditions (irony!). I still hold out some hope that perhaps one day, I'll be wandering the racks at some random bookstore down Maine way and bump into him. It's an outlandishly small probability. It's the same with the myriad of wonderful men and women whose written words have given me both imagination fodder, and entertainment, I'd like to buy them a cup (or glass, pint, bottle, et cetera) and thank them for the hours of enjoyment and enlightenment, and perhaps get them to tell me a story with the finest medium: chit chat.
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